SUNS EXTINGUISHED
for Large Orchestra (2018)
Duration: c. 5 min.
Written for the London Symphony Orchestra through the LSO Discovery Panufnik Composers Scheme. Generously supported by Lady Hamlyn and the Helen Hamlyn Trust. Premiered by LSO, conducted by Francois-Xavier Roth.
Full Score
Copyright © 2024 Edition Wilhelm Hansen A/S, Copenhagen
Music engraving in Sibelius
Publisher’s editor: Katrine Gregersen Dal
Edition Wilhelm Hansen, A/S Copenhagen Bornholmsgade 1A 1266 København K Denmark
www.wisemusicclassical.com
Instrumentation
3 Flutes
2 Oboes
Cor anglais
2 Clarinets in Bb
Bass clarinet in Bb
2 bassoons
Contrabassoon
4 Horns in F (straight mutes)
3 Trumpets in Bb (cup mutes, harmon mutes)
2 Tenor trombones (cup mutes)
Bass trombone (straight mute)
Tuba (straight mute)
Timpani (1 timpani tuned to D2, 1 piccolo timpani)
Percussion I (Tubular bells, vibraphone)
Percussion II (Bell plate A3, bass drum)
Harp (E4 & A4 tuned approx. quarter-tone sharp)
Violin I (7 desks)
Violin II (6 desks)
Viola (5 desks)
Cello (4 desks)
Double Bass (3 desks)
Composer’s notes
A cyclical progression of four diatonic chords govern the structure of this piece. The chords act as a static chorale in the background whilst more fleeting and flowing melodic and gestural material is brought to the forefront. The diatonicism perhaps evokes a certain harmonic familiarity yet the music is saturated with microtones to alienate the sound world ever so slightly.
The piece starts with quiet humming of double bass harmonics, outlining the harmonic material used in the piece. The full orchestra joins the journey, breathing colour into the texture as melodic fragments appear against the pulsation of the four horns. The brass and lower woodwind move towards a darker register, allowing very brief melodic outbursts to appear on the high strings, whilst tolling bells accompany.
The piece finishes with only the remnants of the music heard before.
The title of the piece - Suns extinguished - is derived from a paragraph in Paul-Henri Thiry's (Baron d’Holbach) 1770 book; Le système de la nature. It reads:
‘Suns are extinguished or become corrupted, planets perish and scatter across the wastes of the sky; other suns are kindled, new planets formed to make their revolutions or describe new orbits, and man, an infinitely minute part of a globe which itself is only an imperceptible point in the immense whole, believes that the universe is made for himself.’
What specifically intrigued me about this passage is its poetic feel and beauty, and the humility expressed towards the universe.
